Coheed and Cambria at the Palladium

On Sunday, March 3rd, The Children of the Fence were out in full force at the Palladium Theater in Dallas, TX.

Coheed and Cambria is touring in support of their newest release the two part album The Afterman: Ascension and The Afterman: Descension.  I had the pleasure of speaking with Zach Cooper earlier in the week while they were in California. They did three different cities in Texa,s and I met some of their super fans in the front that had made all three shows. Claudio himself said in one of his chats with the crowd that Texas had been very good to the band.

I myself am not familiar with the music of this band.  Honestly, it is not a genre I usually find appealing, but researching for the interview, attending the live show, and getting to witness the talent and the super loyal fan base has been quite the experience.

As I entered the parking lot of the Palladium, I had already noticed a large amount of cars with the symbols Coheed uses in their stories, then entering the venue it was a sea of people wearing band shirts and hats and all kinds of band-related tattoos. While standing in between the barricades and the stage waiting for the show to start, the crowd was growing by the minute and pushing in closer and closer, with the body heat pouring off them.  As soon as the lights went down and the guys entered the stage, it was pandemonium. For the 14 song set, there was moshing, crowd surfing, and guys and girls singing along with all their heart and soul to every word of every song.

The stage setup was Josh Eppard on his drum set in the back center with a large lighted Coheed and Cambria band logo above him. Travis Stever with his guitar on stage right, Zach Cooper on bass on stage left, and of course Claudio Sanchez and his hair in the center.  There were two large, circular enclosures on each side of the drum set that contained several all white female mannequins.  The back wall of the stage had screens that would occasionally show some of the beautiful illustrations from the Armory Wars. The main roadie earned his money by running guitars back and forth between almost every song, and Claudio constantly changed his instruments.

I had a couple of  minutes standing directly in front of Claudio, and there is nothing that can truly prepare you for the gloriousness that is that hair.  He alternated between having it tied back, letting it out, and shaking it in its full glory, so much so I could barely fit it in some of the shots I was trying to take.  These guys have amazing talent and even with the changes through the years and the most recent addition of Zach less than a year ago, they were a cohesive unit playing to their maximum abilities and giving their fans everything they wanted.  I had just as much fun watching all the fans sing along as I did watching the band feed off of their energy.

These guys have a lot more stops left in their tour including a three city string in Florida starting on March 6th.  If one near you has not sold out yet, get your tickets because it will!

Photos and Review by Reanna Streater

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